Antonio Vivaldi: Venetian Virtuoso Antonio Vivaldi was a virtuoso violinist, a virtuoso composer � at least in terms of quantity � and a virtuoso teacher, as clearly evidenced by the level of competence attained by his pupils. A Venetian all his life, travelling but always returning, Vivaldi epitomizes Italian Baroque Music like no other composer. But first, let us look briefly at Vivaldi's home City-State. Situated on 120 islands formed by 177 canals in the lagoon between the mouths of the Po and Piave rivers at the northern extremity of the Adriatic Sea, Venice became known as the �Queen of the Adriatic� reflecting its historic role as a naval power and commercial centre. The Crusades and the resulting development of trade with Asia and the Middle East led to the establishment of Venice as the greatest commercial centre for trade with the East and politically the strongest European power in the Mediterranean region. Governed effectively by its wealthy merchants with a focus on trade, Venice prospered; the great houses, palaces, public buildings and statuary we enjoy today are the legacy of aristocratic wealth.

Having put down its main rival, Genoa, in the war of 1378-1381, Venice established its supremacy over the Adriatic, its 'home waters', and the northern Mediterranean. Further wars of conquest enabled Venice to acquire neighbouring territories, and by the late 15th century, the city-state was the leading maritime power in the Christian world. Travel up and down the Croatian coast to see evidence everywhere of Venetian architecture, statues and city planning. But by the mid 1600s Venice was losing its commercial power, as new trading routes opened, and new power structures developed in the Mediterranean. So Venice, undeterred, opened itself up to the newly travelling aristocracy as a tourist centre, with its Masqued Carnivals and Splendiferous Canal Processions set against the backdrop of its unique location and architecture. Venice Carnival Masques In 1668, "An Italian Voyage" by Richard Lassels was published, and the institution of the Grand Tour of Europe was born. The Grand Tourist was typically a young man with a thorough grounding in Greek and Latin literature as well as leisure time, financial means, and some interest in art.

London was a frequent starting point for Grand Tourists, and Paris a compulsory destination; many travelled to the Netherlands, some to Switzerland and Germany, and a very few adventurers to Spain, Greece, or Turkey. The essential place to visit, however, was Italy. The British traveller Charles Thompson speaks for many Grand Tourists when he describes himself as "being impatiently desirous of viewing a country so famous in history, which once gave laws to the world; which is at present the greatest school of music and painting, contains the noblest productions of statuary and architecture, and abounds with cabinets of rarities, and collections of all kinds of antiquities." Domestic music making among the wealthier families was a popular and highly prized art, and for many Grand Tourists the celebrated virtuosi, the concerts and compositions of baroque masters especially in Italy would have been a major focus of their travels. They would also bring back music scores or hand-written copies of the latest Italian compositions. Within Italy, the great focus was Rome, whose ancient ruins and more recent achievements were shown to every Grand Tourist. Here too, it may be said that baroque music was born.

During the first half of the 1700s, baroque music adopted the Italian forms of the concerto and sonata, and with them, much of the Italian baroque "vocabulary" together with the latest Italian compositions. In the north, Venice was also recognized as a great music centre both for its concerts and its operatic traditions. The violin was especially prized among Venetian composers, perhaps due to the proximity of eminent violin makers and families such as Amati and Stradivarius. A fortuitous background indeed, into which Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice on March 4th, 1678. Though ordained a priest in 1703, according to his own account, within a year of being ordained Vivaldi no longer wished to celebrate mass because of physical complaints ("tightness of the chest") which pointed to angina pectoris, asthmatic bronchitis, or a nervous disorder. It is also possible that Vivaldi was simulating illness - there is a story that he sometimes left the altar in order to quickly jot down a musical idea in the sacristy....

In any event he had become a priest against his own will, perhaps because in his day training for the priesthood was often the only possible way for a poor family to obtain free schooling. In the event however, he was destined for a life of music, as he was employed for most of his working life by the Ospedale della Piet�, beginning right after his ordination in 1703, when he was appointed as violin teacher. The reputation of baroque Venice as a musical centre was one of the highest in Europe, due largely to its four conservatories of music. Beginning as charitable foundations they developed gradually as seats of musical learning, and by the early 1700s their excellence was unrivalled. This was confirmed by Charles de Brosses, French Magistrate and President of the Parlement de Dijon, who visited Italy in 1739, reporting in his Lettres famili�res �crites d'Italie and published posthumously in 1799, that "the Ospedali have the best music here. There are four of them, all for illegitimate or orphaned girls whose parents cannot support them.

These are brought up at the State's expense and trained exclusively in music. Indeed they sing like angels, play the violin, flute, organ, oboe, cello, bassoon... The performances are entirely their own and each concert is composed of about forty girls." The Ospedale della Piet� however, where Vivaldi was employed for most of his working life as violin teacher and composer, stood above the rest. Often termed an "orphanage", this Ospedale was in fact a home for the female offspring of noblemen and their numerous dalliances with their mistresses. The Ospedale was thus well endowed by the "anonymous" fathers; its furnishings bordered on the opulent, the young ladies were well looked-after, and the musical standards among the highest in Venice. Though Vivaldi composed many fine and memorable concertos, such as the Four Seasons and the Opus 3 for example, he also wrote many works which sound like exercises for students. And this is precisely what they were. Many of Vivaldi's concerti were indeed exercises which he would play with his many talented pupils. And the listener can only be impressed by the high technical standard they demand and imply.

Indeed the Ospedale's orchestra was highly respected and in frequent demand for concerts outside the Ospedale. Until 1709, Vivaldi's appointment with the Ospedale was renewed every year and again after 1711. Between 1709 and 1711 was not attached to the Ospedale; perhaps in this period he was already working for the Teatro Sant' Angelo, an opera theatre. He also became active as a composer - in 1711 twelve concertos he had written were published in Amsterdam by the music publisher Estienne Roger under the title l'Estro armonico (Harmonic Inspiration). While maintaining his relationship with the Ospedale, Vivaldi also had a great interest in opera. In 1713 he was given a month's leave from the Ospedale in order to stage his first opera, Ottone in villa, in Vicenza. In the 1713-4 season he produced an opera by the composer Giovanni Alberto Rostori (1692-1753) for the Teatro Sant' Angelo.

As far as his theatrical activities were concerned, the end of 1716 was a high point for Vivaldi. In November, he managed to have the Ospedale della Piet� perform his first great oratorio, Juditha Triumphans devicta Holofernis barbaric. This work was an allegorical description of the victory of the Venetians (the Christians) over the Turks (the barbarians) in August 1716. At the end of 1717 Vivaldi moved to Mantua for two years in order to take up a post as Chamber Capellmeister at the court of Landgrave Philip van Hessen-Darmstadt. His task there was to provide operas, cantatas, and perhaps concert music, too. His opera Armida had already been performed earlier in Mantua and in 1719 Teuzzone and Tito Manlio followed. On the score of the latter are the words: "music by Vivaldi, made in 5 days." In 1720 La Conduce o siano Li veri amici was also performed.

In 172O Vivaldi returned to Venice where he again staged new operas written by himself in the Teatro Sant' Angelo. In Mantua he had made the acquaintance of the singer Anna Giraud (or Giro), who had moved in to live with him. Vivaldi maintained that she was no more than a housekeeper and good friend, just like Anna's sister, Paolina, who also shared his house. In his Memoirs, the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni gave the following portrait of Vivaldi and Giraud: "This priest, an excellent violinist but a mediocre composer, has trained Miss Giraud to be a singer. She was young, born in Venice, but the daughter of a French wigmaker. She was not beautiful, though she was elegant, small in stature, with beautiful eyes and a fascinating mouth. She had a small voice, but many languages in which to harangue." Vivaldi stayed together with her until his death. During the early 1720s Vivaldi was also active in Rome, where he found a patron in the person of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, a great music lover, who earlier had been the patron of Arcangelo Corelli.

And if we can believe Vivaldi himself, the Pope asked him to come and play the violin for him at a private audience. Vivaldi also wrote works on commission from foreign rulers, such as the French king, Louis XV - the serenade La Sena festeggiante (Festival on the Seine), for example. This work cannot be dated precisely, but it was certainly written after 1720. Earlier, in the 1660's, musical life in Rome had been enormously stimulated by the presence in the city of Christina of Sweden. The "Pallas of the North," as she was called, abdicated from the Swedish throne in 1654. A few years later she moved to Rome and took up residence in the Palazzo Riario. There she organized musical events that were attended by composers such as Corelli and Scarlatti. Other composers, too, such as Geminiani and Handel worked in Rome for periods of time. Like them, Vivaldi profited from the favourable cultural climate in the city.

Despite his stay in Rome and other cities, Vivaldi remained in the service of the Ospedale della Piet�, which nominated him "Maestro di concerti." He was required only to send two concertos per month to Venice (transport costs were to the account of the client) for which he received a ducat per concerto. His presence was never required. He also remained director of the Teatro Sant' Angelo, as he did in the 1726, 7 and 8 seasons. Between 1725 and 1728 some eight operas were premiered in Venice and Florence. Abbot Conti wrote of his contemporary, Vivaldi: "In less than three months Vivaldi has composed three operas, two for Venice and a third for Florence; the last has given something of a boost to the name of the theater of that city and he has earned a great deal of money." Between 1725 and 1728 Vivaldi was also extremely active in the field of concertos, encouraged, perhaps, by the establishment of improved engraving and distribution facilities in London and Amsterdam.

In 1725 the publication Il Cimento dell' Armenia e dell'invenzione (The trial of harmony and invention), opus 8, appeared in Amsterdam. This consisted of twelve concertos, seven of which were descriptive: The Four Seasons, Storm at Sea, Pleasure and The Hunt. Vivaldi transformed the tradition of descriptive music into a typically Italian musical style with its unmistakable timbre in which the strings play a major role. These concertos were enormously successful, particularly in France. In the second half of the 1700s there even appeared some remarkable adaptations of the Spring concerto: Michel Corrette (1709-1795) based his motet Laudate Dominum de coelis of 1765 on this concerto and, in 1775, Jean-Jacques Rousseau reworked it into a version for solo flute. "Spring" was also a firm favourite of King Louis XV, who would order it to be performed at the most unexpected moments, and Vivaldi received various commissions for further compositions from the court at Versailles. In 1730 Vivaldi, his father, and Anna Giraud travelled to Prague.

In this music-loving city (half a century later Mozart would celebrate his first operatic triumphs there) Vivaldi met a Venetian opera company which between 1724 and 1734 staged some sixty operas in the theater of Count Franz Anton von Sporck (for whom incidentally, Bach produced his Four Shorter Masses). In the 1730-1731 season, two new operas by Vivaldi were premiered there after the previous season had closed with his opera Farnace, a work the composer often used as his showpiece. At the end of 1731 Vivaldi returned to Venice, but at the beginning of 1732 he left again for Mantua and Verona. In Mantua, Vivaldi's opera Semimmide was performed and in Verona, on the occasion of the opening of the new Teatro Filarmonico, La fida Ninfa, with a libretto by the Veronese poet and man of letters, Scipione Maffei, was staged. After his stay in Prague, Vivaldi concentrated mainly on operas. No further collections of instrumental music were published.

However Vivaldi continued to write instrumental music, although it was only to sell the manuscripts to private persons or to the Ospedale della Piet�, which after 1735 paid him a fixed honorarium of 100 ducats a year. In 1733 he met the English traveller, Edward Holdsworth, who had been commissioned to purchase a few of Vivaldi's compositions for the man of letters, Charles Jennens, author of texts for oratorios by Handel. Holdsworth wrote to Jennens: "I spoke with your friend Vivaldi today. He told me that he had decided to publish no more concertos because otherwise he can no longer sell his handwritten compositions. He earns more with these, he said, and since he charges one guinea per piece, that must be true if he finds a goodly number of buyers." In 1738 Vivaldi was in Amsterdam where he conducted a festive opening concert for the 100th Anniversary of the Schouwburg Theatre.

Returning to Venice, which was at that time suffering a severe economic downturn, Vivaldi at last resigned from the Ospedale in 1740, planning to move to Vienna under the patronage of his admirer Charles VI. His stay in Vienna was to be shortlived however, for he died aged 62 on July 28th 1741 "of internal fire" (probably the asthmatic bronchitis from which he suffered all his life) and, like Mozart fifty years later, received a modest burial. Anna Giraud returned to Venice, where she died in 1750. Vivaldi's music became widely known, and performed, throughout Europe, due in large part to his publications with Estienne Roger of Amsterdam, whose distribution was well-organized. He had, for example, a distributor in Leipzig with whom Bach was in regular contact. Bach indeed adapted a number of Vivaldi's works for organ and harpsichord, and as concertos for harpsichord and strings. He also included several of Vivaldi's works during the popular musical evenings which he organised during the 1730s at Zimmerman's Coffee House in Leipzig.

Today Vivaldi is perhaps best known for his Four Seasons. However students of individual orchestral instruments can be sure of finding challenging pieces which Vivaldi composed for his own students at the Venice Ospedale. For a greater appreciation of the Four Seasons follow the text in English and Italian of the Sonnets on which the Seasons were based: Music publishing in Baroque Europe. Two major publishers in London, developing new and cheaper methods of engraving and printing. Until 1950 Vivaldi's huge output of music was hardly known. Its discovery, rescue and eventual publication makes exciting and fascinating reading. Check the story - Classical Net - Basic Repertoire List - Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741) For such an outstanding composer, relatively little is known about Vivaldi's life beyond the fact that he was born and raised in Venice. This is ironic, considering this great Baroque composer's close association in the public's mind with everything Venetian – an association only bettered by Canaletto. Vivaldi's father was a violinist at St. Mark's, and there are indications that Antonio received his early musical schooling from within the family.

He is understood to have trained as a priest, and was ordained in 1703. With this achieved, Vivaldi gave up any pretence to a life of the cloth and instead concentrated on his musical career. The same year he was appointed as maestro di violino by the Ospedale della Pieta, a charitable religious foundation for the education and upbringing of female orphans. His relationship with the Pieta was to last for the rest of his life, a central pivot around which his musical activities could revolve. Thus began the career of the man known to all as "Il Prete Rosso" (the Red Priest) on account of his extraordinary shock of red hair. It is worth conjecturing that Vivaldi's decision to join the priesthood solved the problem of earning a living while he practiced the art which obsessed him. It is clear that his family was not well-to-do, unable to support him in the manner of Albinoni who remained a dilettante composer until well into his thirties.

That Vivaldi's appointment was made – in part at least – because of his composing abilities seems assured by the fact that his superior at the Pieta was Francesco Gasparini who had been a pupil of Corelli and was a capable operatic composer. Vivaldi's skill as a violinist and his organizational abilities made him an ideal man for the role. The instrumental ensembles of the Pieta – already acknowledged as unusually high in achievement – eventually became a source of public admiration, their Sunday concerts often attended by capacity crowds. Vivaldi's role enabled him to experiment with his compositional ideas and techniques, and by 1705 he had earned enough of a reputation to publish his Opus 1, a series of Trio Sonatas. Three years later his Opus 2, a set of Violin Sonatas, appeared. It is clear, however, that some of his concertos were already in private circulation, and that the publication of L'Estro Armonico, Op. 3 publicly confirmed what a number of Venetians had begun to grasp: that here was a genius who was bringing the Baroque concerto form to a peak of perfection while simultaneously initiating a new approach to the idea of instrumental musical expression.

What Vivaldi achieved with this vastly important collection was the definitive organization of musical material into a unified and highly expressive form which allowed for a hitherto unimagined freedom of invention, as well as enormous scope for drama and surprise. He aimed at simplicity and clarity at all times, avoiding the bombastic and portentous and concentrating on the telling phrase and the expressive sweep of a single melody perfectly accompanied by flawless harmony transparently scored. L'Estro Armonico was a revelation to his contemporaries, rendering obsolete all that came before it in the genre. After this there was nothing more for other Italian composers to do but try to beat Vivaldi at his own game. Few came close, for Vivaldi had such a wonderful combination of passion and imagination, elegance and poise. It is no accident that the young Johann Sebastian Bach came to know and revere this set of concerti, using it as his model for composing. As his early biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel commented: "He listened to them often, with great attention, and finally conceived the idea of transcribing them for his own keyboard.

It was in this way that he learned the logic of musical ideas, their sequence, the correct succession for modulations, and many other things…he learned to think in music…(and)…borrow his musical ideas not from his fingers, but from his imagination". Vivaldi, however, did not rest on his laurels; he was intensely interested in opera, and 1713 saw his debut with Ottone in Villa. This heralded a new stage in his compositional life; increasing amounts of time were spent either composing, sourcing, overseeing or producing his (and other composers') operas. Another important watershed in his professional life occurred with the departure in 1714 of Gasparini, his superior at the Pieta, for Rome. Vivaldi now had to supply regular musical material for the Pieta's choir, in addition to his usual outpouring of instrumental and operatic music. By the end of the following year, Vivaldi was being praised by the Pieta's governors for already delivering a Mass, an oratorio, more than 30 motets, and a Vespers. In 1714 Vivaldi published his Op.

4, La Stravaganza, which made further advances in the evolution of the concerto genre. Time and again he excites the anticipation of the audience through his clever musical constructions, only to overturn it by the most imaginative and capricious means at his disposal. This, however, should not give the impression that these concertos were any less rigorously organized than the former series; they are every bit as formally perfect, and the underlying musical forms which Vivaldi took for new development point, in part, to concerti grossi models as well as to the solo concerto in which he specialized. After this series of artistic triumphs, Vivaldi increasingly applied for leave of absence to travel extensively in Italy and further abroad. There was a period of time (estimated to be about four years, although the actual dates vary from between 1707 to 1721) when he was in the service of Philip von Hessen (of Hesse-Darmstadt), the Governor of Mantua. While in Mantua he met a singer, Anna Giraud, who later appeared as the soprano lead in many of his operas. Their relationship remained close and Anna, together with her sister; often acted as his traveling companions.

His concertos continued to be published in Amsterdam, with Opus 7 appearing in 1716. His crowning glory, Opus 8, appeared in 1725, although the music had probably been composed from 1720 onwards. This set of 8 concerti, entitled Il cimento dell' armonia e dell' inventione, included the now universally acclaimed four concerti called Le quattro stagione (The Four Seasons), which were accompanied by brief poems describing the seasonal pictures Vivaldi wished to echo in his music. The second section included the famous La tempesta di mare (Storm at Sea) and La Caccia (The Hunt), violin concertos which were every bit as pictorial as the former four works. These works were all dedicated to the Bohemian Count Wenzel von Morzin, a Habsburg potentate with whom Vivaldi was regularly associated. The composer, meanwhile, had been to Rome in 1723-4, where he was given the opportunity to impress the Pope, playing before him to sustained applause.

By 1727 he was ready to publish his last great set of concerti, La Cetra (The Lyre), Op. 9. This was dedicated to the Austrian Emperor, Charles VI, with whom Vivaldi seems to have become acquainted in Vienna during the mid-1720s. The Emperor, a great music enthusiast, a keen amateur composer and keyboard player, could not have failed to be impressed by Vivaldi. This is born out by a report of their later meeting in Trieste in 1728: "The Emperor conversed for a long time with Vivaldi about music; they say that he talked longer to him in private in 15 days than he talks to his ministers in two years". It is interesting to note that there exists a second set of 12 concertos entitled La Cetra and dedicated to the Emperor which contains just one work common to both sets and remained in manuscript during Vivaldi's lifetime. The music in this later set is every bit as compelling and inventive as earlier collections, with the quality of the writing uniformly high.

With this work and the corresponding operas of the late 1720s and early 1730s, Vivaldi passed from the peak of his profession into a long decline. New composers and new styles of Italian opera and chamber music were pressing for the public's attention, especially those from Naples. Vivaldi, now in his mid-fifties, was beginning to be taken for granted by his audience. His absences from Venice and the Pieta also told against him as the tide of public fashion turned, and when his great patron Philip von Hessen died in 1736 the church authorities lost little time making him feel uncomfortable in Venice. In 1737 his operas were banned on the pretext that he was to be regarded as a lapsed priest due to his association with Anna Giraud, and the following year the governors of the Pieta used similar reasoning in their decision not to renew his contract. By 1740, tired and increasingly isolated, Vivaldi left Venice once more and traveled to Vienna, perhaps in the hope of gaining a position there.

Like Wolfgang Mozart 40 years later, he was disappointed; his great friend, Emperor Charles VI, had died just prior to his arrival and the new rulers were already plunged into what became the War of Austrian Succession. Vivaldi spent the winter in Vienna hoping for an upturn in his fortunes but nothing transpired. By the spring he was weak and ailing, and in July, at the height of summer; he died, He was buried – again like Mozart – in a pauper's grave. With a catalogue of works which include nearly 500 concertos alone, and considering that Vivaldi himself only published – in the collections detailed above – close to 100 concertos, there is a vast amount which is not in any way conveniently collected and are only identifiable by instruments, keys employed and RV numbers. The most famous sets of concertos – Opus 3 and Opus 8, the latter including the Four Seasons – contain the richness and freshness of Vivaldi's invention at its early and middle peaks.

The Opus 3 L'Estro Armonico concertos are greatly varied in terms of the combination of solo instrumentation (there are also a number in the concerti grossi style), while Opus 8 reflects a peak in terms of Vivaldi's marvelous ear for the sounds of nature, as well as his ability to convert what he sees around him into musical phrases. Apart from concertos written for one, two or three violins, there are over 20 cello concertos, close to 50 bassoon concertos, 20 for the relatively new instrument, the oboe, plus concertos for what was then a very new instrument, the clarinet, concertos for mandolins, and the ravishing Opus 10 flute concertos. As with the concertos, Vivaldi's sacred music is usually represented by his Glorias, RV 589 and 588, but there is a great deal more very beautiful and often moving music written for religious settings, including a Stabat Mater RV 621 and over 20 cantatas.

There is no doubt that Vivaldi set great store by his stage works, claiming to have produced close to 100 of them in the 28 years between his first and last operas. This can no longer be authenticated, although nearly 50 can be accounted for. Unfortunately, only a few scores have been located, and only a handful of the operas that have survived have received professional productions in modern times. Vivaldi wrote in the opera seria style, as well as completing a number of the more opera buffo-type intermezzi before the end of his career. The latter is well represented by La Senna Festeggiante (1728), while his operatic style can be accurately surmised from the 1735 production, Catone in Utica. Recommended Recordings Antonio Vivaldi Quick Facts and Profile Did you know that there was an earthquake on the day of Antonio Vivaldis birth? Antonio Vivaldi battled bronchial asthma throughout his life. Antonio Vivaldi's personality can be compared to the likes of Donald Trump - cocky! He claimed he could compose a concerto in all its parts faster than it could be copied.

Many of his claims, however, could not be proved. Vivaldi's Family Background: Antonio Vivaldis father, Giovanni Battista, was the son of a tailor. He was born in 1655 in Brescia and later moved with his mother to Venice in 1666. Giovanni worked as a baber, but eventually became a professional violinist. Giovanni married Camilla Calicchio, who also happened to be the daughter of a tailor, in 1676. Together they had nine children of whom Antonio Vivaldi was the oldest. In 1685, Giovanni, under the surname of Rossi, became a full-time violinist at St. continue reading below our video Highest Paid Female Actors Ever Marks. Childhood - Teen Years: Antonio Vivaldi was trained in the priesthood in 1693 and was ordained in 1703. During these years Antonio Vivaldi was taught to play violin by his father. His earliest known performance was in 1696. After Antonios ordination, he put an end to saying Mass.

Antonio Vivaldi claimed his chest was too tight (the asthma), while others believed he quit because he was forced to become a priest. Often, lower class families would send their children into the priesthood because the schooling was free. Early Adult Years: Antonio Vivaldi was appointed as the maestro di violino at the Ospedale della Pietà. Throughout the next decade, Antonio Vivaldi held on again/off again positions at the Pietà. Antonio Vivaldi published his first works, the trio sonatas, in 1703, violin sonatas in 1709, and his 12 concertos, Lestro armonico, in 1711. In 1710, Antonio Vivaldi worked with his father in several operatic productions. His first operatic production was Orlando finto pazzo at the theatre of St. Angelo in 1714. Mid Adult Years: In 1718, Antonio Vivaldi traveled to Mantua with his new opera, Armida al campo d'Egitto, where he stayed until 1720.

He composed sevreal operas, cantatas, and serenatas for the Mantuan court. Antonio Vivaldi was given the title maestro di cappella da camera by the Governor. After leaving Mantua, Vivaldi traveled to Rome where he performed for the Pope and composed and performed new operas . Antonio Vivaldi made a deal with the Pietà and supplied them with 140 concertos between 1723 and 1729. Late Adult Years: Antonio Vivaldis traveled extensively during the late years of his life. It is believed he loved to watch the opening performances of all his new operas. His prominent operatic vocalist, Anna Girò, was believed to be his mistriss because she appereard in many of his operas between 1723 and 1748. In the last year of his life, Antonio Vivaldi sold several works in Vienna. Antonio Vivaldi died on July 28 in Vienna.

Selected Works by Antonio Vivaldi: Opera La costanza trionfante de glamori e de glodii - 1716 Arsilda, regina di Ponto - 1716 Lincoronazione di Dario - 1717 Teuzzone - 1718 La Candace, o siano Li veri amici - 1720 La Silvia - 1721 Antonio Vivaldi Biography - life, childhood, information, born, time Antonio Vivaldi Biography Vienna, Austria Italian composer, violinist and priest Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian violinist and composer whose concertos—pieces for one or more instruments—were widely known and influential throughout Europe. Childhood and early career Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice, Italy, on March 4, 1678. His first music teacher was his father, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi. The elder Vivaldi was a well-respected violinist, employed at the church of St. Mark's. It is possible, though not proved, that as a boy Antonio also studied with the composer Giovanni Legrenzi (1626–1690).

Antonio was trained for a clerical (religious service) as well as a musical life. After going through the various introductory stages, he was ordained (authorized) a priest in March 1703. His active career, however, was devoted to music. In the autumn of 1703 he was appointed as a violin teacher at the Ospitale della Pieta in Venice. A few years later he was made conductor of the orchestra at the same institution. Under Vivaldi's direction, this orchestra gave many brilliant concerts and achieved an international reputation. Vivaldi remained at the Pietà until 1740. But his long years there were broken by the numerous trips he took, for professional purposes, to Italian and foreign cities. He went, among other places, to Vienna, Italy, from 1729 to 1730 and to Amsterdam, Netherlands, from 1737 to 1738. Within Italy he traveled to various cities to direct performances of his operas. He left Venice for the last time in 1740. He died in Vienna on July 26 or 27, 1741.

Vivaldi's music Vivaldi was very productive in vocal and instrumental music, sacred and secular (nonreligious). According to the latest research, he composed over seven hundred pieces—ranging from sonatas (instrumental compositions usually with three or four movements) and operas (musical dramas consisting of vocal and instrumental pieces) to concertos (musical compositions for one or two vocal performers set against a full orchestra). Today the vocal music of Vivaldi is little known. But in his own day he was famous and successful as an opera composer. Most of his operas were written for Venice, but some were performed throughout Italy in Rome, Florence, Verona, Vicenza, Ancona, and Mantua. Vivaldi was also one of the great eighteenth century violin virtuosos, or musicians with superb ability. This virtuosity is reflected in his music, which made new demands on Antonio Vivaldi. Reproduced by permission of Archive Photos, Inc. violin technique. In his instrumental works he naturally favored the violin. He wrote the majority of his sonatas for one or two violins and thorough-bass. Of his concertos, 221 are for solo violin and orchestra.

Other concertos are for a variety of solo instruments, including the flute, the clarinet, the trumpet, and the mandolin. He also wrote concertos for several solo instruments, concerti grossi, and concertos for full orchestra. The concerto grosso features a small group of solo players, set against the full orchestra. The concerto for orchestra features differences of style rather than differences of instruments. Orchestral music Vivaldi's concertos are generally in three movements, arranged in the order of fast, slow, fast. The two outer movements are in the same key; the middle movement is in the same key or in a closely related key. Within movements, the music proceeds on the principle of alternation: passages for the solo instrument(s) alternate with passages for the full orchestra. The solo instrument may extend the material played by the orchestra, or it may play quite different material of its own. In either case, the alternation between soloist and orchestra builds up a tension that can be very dramatic. The orchestra in Vivaldi's time was different, of course, from a modern one in its size and constitution. Although winds were sometimes called for, strings constituted the main body of players.

In a Vivaldi concerto, the orchestra is essentially a string orchestra, with one or two harpsichords or organs to play the thorough-bass. Some of Vivaldi's concertos are pieces of program music, for they give musical descriptions of events or natural scenes. The Seasons, for instance, consists of four concertos representing the four seasons. But in his concertos the "program" does not determine the formal structure of the music. Some musical material may imitate the call of a bird or the rustling of leaves; but the formal plan of the concerto is maintained. Vivaldi's concertos were widely known during and after his lifetime. They were copied and admired by another musician, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). In musical Europe of the eighteenth century Vivaldi was one of the great names. For More Information Heller, Karl. Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest of Venice. Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1997. Kolneder, Walter. Antonio Vivaldi: His Life and Work. Edited by Bill Hopkins. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970. Landon, H. C.

Robbins. Vivaldi: Voice of the Baroque. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Morgenstern, Sheldon. No Vivaldi in the Garage: A Requiem for Classical Music in North America. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2001. User Contributions:

Question: What was the profession of the composer Vivaldi?
Answer: PRIEST